Category: Guzzardi

Republican Values Mean Boom For All — The Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood Patch earlier this month attributed an economic boom in Montgomery County to tax-subsidized development in Lower Merion.

Retired businessman Bob Guzzardi points out in the below article that the growth in Montco is not coming from government-funded projects in Democrat Lower Merion but from free market policies in Republican-controlled King of Prussia, Hatfield and Lower Moreland.

By Bob Guzzardi

Do Republican values and Republican governance lead to prosperity for all as well as more taxes to pay for necessary government services and infrastructure? Empirically, the real world says “yes”. King of Prussia, Hatfield and Lower Moreland are governed by Republicans and they are growing.

I would think that Republican officeholders and those seeking office would want to make the case that Republicans governance means a higher standard of living.

It would seem to me that Republicans would be promoting themselves as the party of growth providing jobs with industrial projects and shopping centers/malls and which generate the tax revenue to build and maintain infrastructure and finance necessary government services.

Upper Merion is Republican, is it not? And the fastest growing municipality in MontCo, it seems. Hatfield is Republican, is it not? How many of these projects are built by free market, competitive contractors, that is, non-union contractors.

Of the 4,089 proposed units, how many were in Republican municipalities? My point is to make the case that in the real world, it can be empirically verified that Republican values work. Democratic Lower Merion is in decline; Republican Upper Merion and King of Prussia are growing raising their standard of living for everyone and creating jobs. So is Lower Moreland and Hatfield.

One of Lower Merion’s biggest projects, the Dranoff project, had to be subsidized and unionized.!

Democrats escaped Democratic (and union controlled) Philadelphia to Republican Lower Merion and, instead of embracing Republican ideas, they imposed a regime of more taxes, more spending and more debt. Lower Merion is in decline. It is shabby and down scale.

Corbett Wins LOL

Incumbent Gov. Tom Corbet in yesterday’s Republican primary handily beat a guy who was not officially on the ballot and had rejected fundraising.

Where retiree Bob Guzzardi’s name appeared on the ballot due to the lateness of the Supreme Court decision ruling him ineligible, Guzzardi tallied, unofficially, well over 10 percent of the vote getting 14.46 percent (3,501 votes) in Allegheny County and 17.45 percent (4,051 votes) in York County.

York County also had 1,410 actual write-ins while Allegheny had 842. Many if not most likely went to Guzzardi.

Where Guzzardi’s name did not appear on the ballot — which included the ring suburbs of Philadelphia — there were, unofficially, 1,199 write-ins in Chester County or 6.91 percent; and 218 in Delaware County (1 percent).

Montgomery County and Bucks County did not release write-in tallies although the “name removed from ballot” button was hit 38 times in Montco and 135 times in Bucks. The under vote for Corbett in Montco was 6,054.

Guzzardi deserves only praise. He ran on principle and to give the many Republicans displeased with Tom Corbett a choice. That the governor feared his candidacy is obvious in the steps he took to disqualify him.

Will the Guzzardi people, many of whom are activists, get behind Corbett this November?

If Corbett changes his position and stops the Common-Core based Pa Core Standards, yes, at least for this one.

We have gotten requests to provide write-in how-tos for other Pennsylvania counties in light of the GOP primary gubernatorial campaign of Bob Guzzardi.

Guzzardi is actually on the ballot in several counties due to the delay in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on his campaign so if one is fortunate to live in one of those simply hit the button by his name.

If, however, you have to write in his name some machines such as the Danaher 1242 which is in use in Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia counties require you to use a pen so make sure you bring one.

Others, including Montgomery County and parts of Chester County, use machines made by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) that allow the write-in name to be typed in via a keypad. In Montco’s case it is the Sequoia Advantage DRE that provides this feature while in Chesco it is the ES&S iVotronic.

Chester County’s website also list the use of the ES&S M100 Paper-Ballot Scanner System in which case a pen will be needed.

We have gotten requests to provide write-in how-tos for other Pennsylvania counties in light of the GOP primary gubernatorial campaign of Bob Guzzardi.

Guzzardi is actually on the ballot in several counties due to the delay in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on his campaign so if one is fortunate to live in one of those simply hit the button by his name.

If, however, you have to write in his name some machines such as the Danaher 1242 which is in use in Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia counties require you to use a pen so make sure you bring one.

Others, including Montgomery County and parts of Chester County, use machines made by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) that allow the write-in name to be typed in via a keypad. In Montco’s case it is the Sequoia Advantage DRE that provides this feature while in Chesco it is the ES&S iVotronic.

Chester County’s website also list the use of the ES&S M100 Paper-Ballot Scanner System in which case a pen will be needed.

The Supreme Court’s rationale was that Guzzardi did not timely file a Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission.

It was the type of petty reasoning that ended for most of us with grade-school playground games, and indicated that Guzzardi’s no-money campaign — he was purposely refusing all donations — actually might have beat the incumbent Tom Corbett.

Guzzardi had initially filed the statement with the Department of State.

Judge Leavitt had noted that the procedure changed this year; the directions for submission were confusing; and Guzzardi’s campaign was given incorrect information by “a Department of State employee with apparent authority” that he only needed to file with that department rather than submit a separate filing to the Ethics Commission.

She noted the Department of State issued a receipt to Guzzardi that it shouldn’t have as he was filing with them the original rather than the required copy.

She noted that Guzzardi promptly corrected the omission upon learning of the problem.

The Supreme Court, solidly in the pocket of the state’s power brokers, found none of these things mattered. It was better that thousands of Pennsylvanians be disenfranchised over a laughable technicality than the status quo of the money flow be threatened.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, a house organ of the establishment, reported Guzzardi as raising less than $5,000. Great journalism. The phrasing should be that he spent less than $5,000. The campaign was entirely self-funded. As noted, he was not raising money. He was refusing donations.

Corbett’s faction spent close to six figures in their fight to keep Guzzardi off the ballot.

The two weeks the Court took in making the decision forced many counties to issue absentee ballots including Guzzardi’s name. Votes cast for Guzzardi on those ballots will be counted as write-in votes for him.

For those wishing to write in Bob’s name use Robert Guzzardi.

You know a lot of Republicans are going to pointedly not hit Corbett’s button at the polls and Pennsylvanians are sure learning how to use that write-in option. It would be cosmic humor of the highest magnitude if Guzzardi ends up beating him.

Supremes Kill Guzzardi Campaign

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thrown Bob Guzzardi off the ballot for May 20, Guzzardi just announced .

The Pennsylvania Republican leadership challenged the 68-year-old retired businessman’s petitions scant minutes before the deadline forcing the self-funded campaign to hire a lawyer to show that those who signed had been eligible to do so and to defend a bizarre claim that the phrase “semi-retired businessman and lawyer” as his job description was somehow fraudulent as he was no longer practicing law.

Oh, and that he violated a technicality as to which paper-please bureaucracy he was supposed to file his stuff.

Since Gov. Corbett has for some strange reason been flooding the airwaves with advertising this primary season, we figured we bring you this statement by his opponent.

By Bob Guzzardi

The Republican establishment during the three years that it has controlled Harrisburg has pursued polices that will raise the annual tax burden by close to $1,000 for many Pennsylvanians by 2018— at least those who own homes and have jobs.

If this angers you, if this sickens you, if this makes you feel betrayed vote for me on May 20.

I am running to be the Republican nominee for governor against incumbent Tom Corbett.

I will not implement the Corbett gas tax

I will move to sell the liquor stores.

I will fight to ban school strikes and other things that cause unnecessary increases to your property tax.

I will stop Common Core.

I will not sign any union contract that contains automatic forced union dues deductions.

I will not sign any budget that spends more this year than last and I will gore the special interest spending oxen to protect The Forgotten Taxpayer.

Tom Corbett cannot win in November. I can.

Read more articles about Pennsylvania politics at BillLawrenceDittos.com